You and Angelina Jolie May Have This in Common
By
Cristina Lourosa-RicardoEdited By
February 19, 2012
There is a $659.01 check with actress Angelina Jolie's name on it sitting on California's unclaimed-property list. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has at least two unclaimed checks in his state. Prominent bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel has under $100 lingering in unclaimed property in Illinois.
At a time when states are criticizing insurance companies for not doing enough to find beneficiaries for unclaimed life-insurance policies, it appears the states aren't always doing a terrific job of uniting funds with the parties owed them, either. Somehow, over the course of several years, it's been too hard to locate Ms. Jolie and Messrs. Giuliani and Emanuel and return their money, despite the fact that they are well known.
That doesn't provide much hope for the thousands of other people with names like John Smith who have unclaimed property held by the states where they lived at one time.
Insurers and other companies that fail to find the owners of dormant accounts or uncashed paychecks eventually turn those funds over to the state with the last known address for the person, usually after two to five years. But unclaimed-property laws vary from state to state, as does their success rates in reuniting owners with their money.
So are states any better than companies at reuniting people with their lost property?
"The answer is, not really. In fact, some states can be even worse," says Brendan Bridgeland, director of the Center for Insurance Research, a nonprofit consumer group.
However, the major difference between companies and states is the ability of consumers to find their lost accounts, Mr. Bridgeland says. It is easier for a resident to locate money through searchable websites once it is turned over to a state. Besides states' proprietary sites, a centralized website, MissingMoney.com , allows consumers to run searches across many states.
By the time unclaimed property finds its way to the state level, the original holder—be it a bank or utility—has often tried to find the owners and struck out. States aren't eager to spend tax dollars hunting down individuals and tend to rely on mass outreach at state-fair booths or staged media events to raise awareness of their online claims sites.
New York, Mr. Giuliani's home state, has arranged some particularly high-profile events.
California sends out letters to every person owed $50 or more before that property is turned over to the state. The state has also created a unit dedicated to locating owners with no valid address, using public databases.
In Illinois, which has Mr. Emanuel sitting in its database, State Treasurer Dan Rutherford runs "Cash Dash" events where he and staffers show up at town halls or chambers of commerce and invite residents to see if they are owed any money.
—Lynn Cowan
WSJ.com